"Remember health care? Clinton wanted to socialize one-seventh of the American economy. As The Economist put it in 1993, "Not since Franklin Roosevelt's War Production Board has it been suggested that so large a part of the American economy should suddenly be placed under government control."
Siewert criticized Cheney on Monday for handing over a deficit of $290 billion in 1992. Yet it was the Clinton health plan, defeated by Republicans and a band of moderate Democrats, that, according to the CBO, would have increased the deficit by at least $200 billion over a decade. So much for a balanced budget (which the Republicans forced Clinton to accept in 1997).
Or how about Gore's 1970's era energy tax, totaling $72.8 billion, on coal, oil, natural gas, and nuclear power? That was too much even for Democrats, who scuttled it 1993 in favor of a 4.3 cent tax on gasoline.
Having stopped these potentially disastrous Clintonista interventions, Republicans helped risk-takers and investors spawn a technological revolution that boosted productivity, restrained inflation, and spurred economic growth.
History may give Clinton the credit he seeks for America's economic success. But the history of the facts — things, of course, that never get in Clinton's way — shows he doesn't deserve it." |
